CULTIVATION & PLANTING

We all know that this is the hardest part of gardening-the true labour of love!

Each spring, as soon as the ground can be turned over, my husband would be out there in the garden working away, equipped with all the neccessary gardening tools.

We have a composter into which we put all our vegetable & fruit peels, eggshells, coffee ground, grass clippings etc...year round. (no meat!) This yields very good organic fertilizer to our garden soil. We also try to practice crop rotation every year so that the soil nutrients do not get depleted as quickly.

As the weather warms & he prepares the beds for planting, I would be out there sowing seeds. Some seeds, for example, snow peas, like cold soil to germinate. Others, like beans & lettuce would have to wait till there is no risk of frost before we can plant them.
We are very lucky we have very dear friends who are so kind to start seeds indoors for us in the spring! (Seeds such as tomatoes, bitter melons, okra, egg plants,hot chili peppers,cucumbers, summer squash, peppers, zucchini, etc...)

Weeding comes next, and that's my chore! It is an ongoing project all summer long!

Staking the snow pea, tomato, cucumber & bitter melon plants is another big job but fun! You can get quite creative at that!

Luckily, we do not get too many bugs in our small garden so it is not too much of a problem.

Harvesting is sure to await you once you have sown the seeds of LABOUR! That's the most exciting & rewarding part of Gardening!

We are very proud to present a growth progression chart of our favourite vegetable, the bittermelon, from young seedling till the mature melon!

young bittermelon seedlings started indoors from seeds in late winter	young bittermelon plants	mature bittermelon plants
young bittermelon	Melons wrapped with newspaper for protection from bugs	Mature bittermelons Yum yum delicious!